Kid Rock performs at the DTE Energy Music Theater during the first of his eight shows in Clarkston, Mich, on Friday, Aug. 9, 2013. Jarrad Henderson/Detroit Free Press / Jarrad Henderson

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Eight sold out shows in your hometown. That’s a local musician’s dream.

On Saturday, Kid Rock took the stage at DTE Energy Music Theatre for the sixth of eight sold-out hometown concerts, where the Detroit star delivered a high-energy summertime party for people on a budget.

But before Kid Rock became a multiplatinum recording artist with legions of fans around the world, he was just another local musician with a dream, hammering it out on the local scene.

It wasn’t unusual to drive around in the mid-’90s and see telephone poles and streets littered with Kid Rock flyers. He’s always had an incredible work ethic.

Saturday’s show was a reminder of just how far the boy from Romeo has come. Flanked by his name in lights and an elaborate 11-piece band, he effortlessly weaved through a string of hits, tapping into his earlier days to display his rap skills on the show’s opener, “Devil without a Cause,” and digging into his Southern-rock roots on one of the show’s closing numbers “All Summer Long.”

He’s come a long way from being an aspiring rapper on the local scene — a one-man operation, playing clubs that many of us local musicians are still sweating it out in.